What Happened to Jeff Weaver on Bernie Sanders’ Campaign?

We now know the name of Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager for 2020 and it’s not Jeff Weaver. What happened to Weaver?

We’ve actually known for about a month now that Weaver wasn’t returning as the campaign manager. CNN reported in early January that if Sanders ran, Weaver wouldn’t be taking up that role a second time. The report came from an unnamed source familiar with the planning for Sanders’ potential campaign.

Weaver then confirmed the news with CNN. He and Sanders are still friends, however. The Daily Beast reports that Weaver will likely be senior adviser to the campaign this time.

Part of the reason for the change is that Sanders needs to add more diversity to his staff and also add changes to help distance his campaign from the sexual harassment allegations that were connected to 2016, CNN reported. In January, Sanders met with Anderson Cooper and apologized to any women who felt they were treated inappropriately. “I am not going to sit here and tell you that we did everything right in terms of human resources, in terms of addressing the needs that I’m hearing from now, that women felt disrespected, that there was sexual harassment, which was not dealt with as effectively as possible.”

Sanders also needs a bigger team this time around, Weaver told CNN in January. “It would have to be much more diverse than was the case in 2016,” Weaver added, “when it was too male and too white.”

But Weaver hasn’t been controversy-free. He was named the president of Our Revolution in 2016 and the decision was so controversial that some staff members quit, Politico reported. In 2017, Nina Turner replaced Weaver as the president of Our Revolution, Politico later shared. Weaver said he was proud of Our Revolution’s work.

Despite Weaver not being campaign manager, this does not indicate any bad blood between Weaver and Sanders. They’re still close, according to reports, and Weaver will still be serving with Sanders’ campaign in some capacity.